CTA, CNA, (R)nold, etc.

Got this e-mail from a connected friend, so I'm going to call this person Major Kong in this site's Dr. Stopworrying (juxtaposed to Dr. Stranglove) theme, or General Turdgison if this person so prefers!

"Thousands of teachers and nurses come to protest "cutbacks" in their state funding. If the bus fare cost $35, that's thousands times $35. If it's a plane fare, it's six or seven times as much. But the more important question is, who's in the emergency rooms and in the classrooms while the loudspeaker is blaring to the crowd outside the Capitol?

Coming from a family of teachers, this behavior of clamoring for political influence does not strike me as having been thought of by a teacher. I mean, unions do an important job in protecting their members and assuring that they are treated fairly in contract negotiations, but since when did a union's need to maintain its membership, if not grow their numbers, take precedence over the state's need to take a balanced approach to funding its obligations? That the unions feel this need is clear, when tens of thousands of dollars are so easily spent to bring "protesters" up to Sacramento, and millions are spent on televised political ads - when there is no election.

The bottom line: We as a state would be better off if our politics were not based on the "me-first" principle, but based on a system far older and permanent: the Golden Rule. This is what we were supposed to learn in pre-school and kindergarten: sharing with others is best; grabbing your own and keeping it from others is not. Shouldn't we make sure there's enough to go around for everybody before demanding our own take? Anyone who doesn't should have to sit in the corner.

Not at all a rant Major Kong! Some serious truths!